Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

CollegeAviator · Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:37 am

Air India flight AI676
Kolkata Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Intl. WB (CCU/VECC) to Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Intl. MH (BOM/VABB)
August 13th 2018
Departure: 0925 IST, arrival: 1220 IST
Seat 22F, Economy Class
VT-EXH, 0.7 years old Airbus A320-251NEO
2nd flight on Airbus A320neo
8th flight on Air India
27th flight on Airbus A320 family
Filed altitude: 36000 feet
YouTube Video Trip Report
Flightaware tracker link

INTRODUCTION
Here we are then, in the final part(s) of the summer 2018 trip back home. So far, it involved an E175 from Fargo to Dallas, followed by a memorable flight on American's 777-200. Turkish Airlines' two 777-300ERs were next, with their own 77W from MIA to IST being a hit, while the KQ leased 77W was alright too. Then came the first A330 flight, the 9W A330 from DEL to BOM, followed by my first flight in the Airbus A320neo, a missed connection which led to a long layover at DEL on to CCU.

I got to try out Thai Airways, Thai Smile, Cambodia Bayon & Bassaka Air in quick succession. This was followed by two more A330 flights (PNH-BKK and BKK-CCU), bringing up the A330 tally on this trip up 4 so far.

THE THIRD OF THREE FSCs IN INDIA
Now then, would you be surprised if I told you that I originally planned on taking AI21/AI102 the wide bodies on CCU-DEL (787) and DEL-BOM (777-300ER, that continues on from JFK), and then cancelled it? Because that’s exactly what happened. The third time on an AI 787 CCU-DEL that I booked on, and I cancelled it because I make bad decisions. Little did I know that this would turn out to be an outstanding decision. Had it not been for TG's equipment swap or this last minute chickening out, this trip would have had 6 777 flights, instead of just the 3 that happened.

FLIGHT DETAILS
Instead, I decided to take the direct flight: Air India was the cheapest among the FSCs (seeing as UK was via DEL, and I’ve taken 9W on this route way too many times) - AI676 being the morning flight, a flight I have taken in the past. This time however, it wasn’t on an A319, but instead on an A320neo. Score, should’ve just booked this one in the first place and not did the entire Vistara thing. Hindsight!
AI676 CCU BOM 13AUG18 0925 1220 A20N

AIR INDIA OPS ON CCU-BOM
Air India operate two flights between Kolkata and Mumbai, the one in the morning in a plane based in Mumbai (as evident with the AI6** flight number), and one in the evening with a Kolkata based flight number (AI7**). There used to be a flight via Hyderabad, AI618/619, the BOM based airplane would do BOM-HYD-CCU-HYD-BOM, but the HYD-CCU-HYD part no longer exists. More on this later.

ONLINE BOOKING
I did a mobile booking for this one: suffice to say, it was quite bizarre. I got it to work, but it seemed rather inefficient. I settled on a free seat, 22F. More towards the back, but I did not want to pay for it. A ticket was emailed to me just fine, in addition to it being on the phone itself. Thankfully, I was able to get a refund for the cancelled AI21/AI102 ticket too.

AUGUST 13TH 2018 - ADIOS, HOME!
The plane would depart Mumbai at 0645 as AI675: I eagerly waited to see this pop up on FlightRadar24 before heading out to the airport. VT-EXH, a 0.7 years old A320-251N would take me to Mumbai: the youngest Air India plane I would fly on! Anticipating a comprehensive check in security, I took no chances and headed out pretty early.

Perhaps some of the more impressive fleet transitions I could think of: remember when Indian Airlines (and then Air India) predominantly had the double-bogey Airbus A320s? That's all been phased out, to the A320neos. There's 27 of them.

CCU NSCBI looking empty -

CHECK IN & SECURITY
I was at the counter for 0748 hours, check in was pretty quick. With just over 1.5 hours before departure I headed for security, and the lines were unsurprisingly long. Took a solid 30 minutes.

Boarding pass

I was airside for 0824 hours, 1hr06min to departure.

SPOTTING
They had some doors open that help ‘expand’ the domestic section: swing gates opening in to the international part. I got as close as I could get to the Emirates 777:

In the international part, looking east/domestic

Domestic was bustling though - with all major airlines have at least 2 flights at this time.

India's 3 biggest low cost carriers

GoAir now have A320neos than A320ceos

AirAsia India is struggling to find it's place in the ultra-competitive Indian skies. Siliguri bound I5 582.

AI776: a Kolkata based flight number, but does a Bengaluru - Kolkata - Bhubaneswar - Hyderabad routing. A320neo, of course.

Northeast bound A319

Guwahati bound G8 532, Imphal bound 6E 707

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Curious, I noticed that the gate AI401/21 usually uses was occupied by an IndiGo A320. Even more interesting, the Air India Dream)liner went and parked all the way at the Hajj Terminal. Something suspicious, perhaps? Well, looked like a delay for the flight to New Delhi.

VT-ANT has arrived from DEL as AI401

I haven't mentioned Jet in a while have I - we'd race the 737-800 to Mumbai, that one operating 9W472. I have this flight twice before, once on VT-JLH and then VT-JLJ.

BBI/HYD bound

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So, here's what happened then! As I mentioned, cancelling the AI21/AI102 ticket was vindicated by a news report the same evening.The headline: Dreamliner windshield cracks on Delhi-Kolkata flight, plane lands safely & grounded

A DELAY LOOMS...
Speaking of delays, I kept a close track of AI675: VT-EXH wasn’t meant to touchdown until 15 or 20 minutes after it’s scheduled arrival time, then another 10 minutes of taxiing, so I was looking at a bit of a delay. The good looking A320neo docked at the gate at 0918 hours, about 25 minutes late: we only had 12 minutes to departure. Someone else realized this, and instantly assumed it would be a 1hr delay for this flight. Hah, lack of trust in the ground staff’s efficiency then, hmmm…

A minute before departure time, the inevitable delay announcement came: a 30 minute delay. Nothing major, in my opinion: I did not have any connections to make myself, but I hoped a lot of this would be made up on the turnaround and the flight itself (despite being a West bound flight…). This however did not stop people from lining up at the gate itself.

Midst of an efficient turnaround

BOARDING
Boarding was called about 15 minutes later, and I was in line 19 minutes past departure time, and onboard 22 minutes past departure time: 0952 hours. They crew were as welcoming as they could be - everything seemed to be quite rushed on their part unfortunately due to the delay.

12 business class seats looked uninspiring, to be frank. These planes are destined to do reasonably long international flights (hovering around 5 hours), I would not be happy for the price paid. Satisfactory for a domestic flight, I guess. Back of the (Air)bus, it was fairly standard. Full flight though - this was not the case the last time I flew on an Air India narrow body, it was pretty empty. As I mentioned before, even that was on AI676.

DEPARTURE
I took my seat 22F. Everything went quick from here. SUPER quick. Just 7 minutes of being onboard and doors were closed, we were ready to go.

1001 hours, a 31 minute delay. No time was gained on the ground, but kudos to the folk working tirelessly to get the plane going - it felt fairly quick. The other full service flight at this time, Jet Airways flight 9W472, was already gone, on time.

Anyway, we pushed back and the engines, like the first NEO flight, took quite some time to start up. I also noticed the Air India 787 in the distance…. suspicious! Anyway, a manual safety demo was done, and the crew started to secure the cabin. This is when one of the flight attendants noticed a wary & nervous first time flier: she reassured her that everything will be just fine, and that she need not worry about the flight, enjoy it. It is these little things that go a long way

Delhi bound Vistara & Jet Airways

Not sure where VT-JLJ was off to...

It was a fairly short taxi to Runway 01R - behind the Emirates 777! Had to hold short for an IndiGo A320 to arrive, and we were all lined up, ready to go at 1014 hours, 49 minutes behind schedule.

TAKE OFF
Once again, the sounds that I’d usually associate with on a 777 showed up on the tiny A320neo and it really threw me off haha! We were up in the air for 1015 hours, to some bumps as we turned west/southwest. Predictably, through the climb even before flaps were retracted, someone decided to get up from their seat and the crew had to make a passive aggressive announcement, rightfully so.

INFLIGHT

A pretty annoying whistling sound started to come up from the back galley and it remained for quite some time. I suppose it was nothing major, so that’s nice. Climb up to 36000 feet was pretty smooth after the initial bumps, usual announcements were done too. There was a leak from the overhead storage a few rows ahead, and the passengers cooperated with the help of cabin crew to put up a temporary seal. Hmm, first the hiss from the back, and now this.

Seeing as Air India only has a vegetarian option to serve on domestic flights, service was done pretty quick. I had a meal tray in front of me just 13 minutes in to the flight.

It was pretty underwhelming if anything. There was a cheese sandwich, ketchup, the entree and a pretty slim chocolate bar for dessert. The entree was a vegetarian cutlet, a kachori, and paneer (cottage cheese). I was most excited about the paneer but there was this really inedible after taste to it, so I was pretty unhappy. Oh well, after all those great meals on Air India the streak did have to come to an end at some point… Tea was alright though.

Did I mention that someone had spilled either tea or coffee on the seat back, and that it wasn’t clean? No bueno. I did appreciate how much quieter the NEO was compared to the A320 and of course B737, I just need to see how much quieter the MAX is, if I get the chance to at all.

Safety card

Cabin

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A bit of drama onboard as someone lost their ID in the lavatory. No one seemed to have claimed it, so I guess it was from a previous flight and that they were separated away from it. Oops! I spent the rest of the time looking at the magazine and catching up on some sleep real quick.

A QUICK END TO THE FLIGHT
With a flying time of 2hr45min announced I expected some holds before arrival. However, we were only 1hr53min in to the flight and I woke up because I felt the nose of the plane dip a little. Announcements followed in succession. Crew secured the cabin for arrival, and surprisingly, we were cleared to final pretty much right away! Huh, despite the delay and padded schedules, I guess we barely made our time slot!

There was some weather in the vicinity, as evidence by rain, clouds and bumps on final.

Thane Creek

Touched down pretty smoothly at 1224 hours, a mere 4 minutes behind schedule.

Taxied all the way to Terminal 2 - my eyes were peeled out for all the Jet Airways planes as the news reports that had just come out were concerning. Who even knew it would get even worse….

Me when I took this flight: Hmmm, I hope Jet pulls through
Me currently: oh shoot

NEO NEO

Docked at gate 42A and engines cut, it was only 1232 hours, 12 minutes late. An on time arrival, nicely done!

I thanked the crew who were very appreciative of my words, and headed out, disembarked just fine, be me taking pictures of planes making my way to the baggage claim. It was another flight done just fine, before the two long international flights ahead of me.

Thank you, EXH!

BOM T2 arrivals

Ope, I guess I'm not going anywhere!

India's 2nd busiest airport hmm...

AirIndia · Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:17 am

Nice report CA. You are right so many 320s in CCU and a mini hub for NE flights.
Also its hard not to spot an EK plane...

CollegeAviator · Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:26 am

AirIndia wrote:
Nice report CA. You are right so many 320s in CCU and a mini hub for NE flights.
Also its hard not to spot an EK plane...

Thank you for giving this a read

Only one time in 2014 did I not see an EK plane during a trip... I did spot a QR B777 @ CDG that time, but not EK :laughing:

CA

VTCIE · Tue Feb 25, 2020 8:02 am

Having flown the AI A320neo numerous times between Singapore and Chennai, I have to say that, despite the decent food and blankets, the short-haul product is not befitting of a national carrier. SriLankan is the only South Asian airline to have seatback IFE, while AI has nothing at all.

That said, they remain a convenient option to fly because of the daytime flights for my city pair, but nothing more. AI did a terrible thing downgrading most of its Southeast Asian flights except DEL–SIN from the 787, which is honestly a great aircraft even for AI, to the inferior A320neo.

CollegeAviator · Fri Mar 06, 2020 3:46 pm

VTCIE wrote:
Having flown the AI A320neo numerous times between Singapore and Chennai, I have to say that, despite the decent food and blankets, the short-haul product is not befitting of a national carrier. SriLankan is the only South Asian airline to have seatback IFE, while AI has nothing at all.

That said, they remain a convenient option to fly because of the daytime flights for my city pair, but nothing more. AI did a terrible thing downgrading most of its Southeast Asian flights except DEL–SIN from the 787, which is honestly a great aircraft even for AI, to the inferior A320neo.

Thank you so much for reading this one! I thought it was a masterstroke when AI operated the 787s between BOM/MAA & SIN: 9W had their A330s, SQ had their impressive service on the 3 flights (at least out of BOM), and AI had a decent chance. With the A320neo? Hmmm, not a very competitive product. I appreciate UL for their awesome hard product.

Cheers,
CA

VTCIE · Fri Mar 06, 2020 3:55 pm

CollegeAviator wrote:
VTCIE wrote:
Having flown the AI A320neo numerous times between Singapore and Chennai, I have to say that, despite the decent food and blankets, the short-haul product is not befitting of a national carrier. SriLankan is the only South Asian airline to have seatback IFE, while AI has nothing at all.

That said, they remain a convenient option to fly because of the daytime flights for my city pair, but nothing more. AI did a terrible thing downgrading most of its Southeast Asian flights except DEL–SIN from the 787, which is honestly a great aircraft even for AI, to the inferior A320neo.

Thank you so much for reading this one! I thought it was a masterstroke when AI operated the 787s between BOM/MAA & SIN: 9W had their A330s, SQ had their impressive service on the 3 flights (at least out of BOM), and AI had a decent chance. With the A320neo? Hmmm, not a very competitive product. I appreciate UL for their awesome hard product.

Cheers,
CA

Thanks for the reply, CollegeAviator! Keep the trip reports and videos coming, and hope to see you on the Vistara 787, Delta A350 and other impressive products soon! Cheers and take care!

And now for a long off-topic rambling from my side about the general disrepair of AI.

If you are looking for IFE on an Indian domestic route, you will have to book one of the AI domestic flights operated by 787s, as you have no other recourse, not until Vistara presses its own 787 into service. Otherwise you have to fly only the A320 family, which is no joy. True, there is free hot food that LCCs do not have, and there are blankets, but I for one would not sacrifice more money simply for small things like those when more pressing issues like legroom and efficiency are problematic.

Now, having completed two very impressive flights on SIN–MAA on 6E, I am thinking of flying 6E exclusively for my travels, even though the timing on both of 6E’s eastbound flights is wretched (they are both redeyes, though the westbound flights are timed during daylight hours). I do not think it is worth paying extra cash to fly AI simply because of the daytime arrivals. When you’re not going to get IFE anyway, you might as well fly 6E for the lowest price. As you’d expect from a private airline, service on 6E is top-notch, and the flight attendants make the very best of the limited product, and more than make up for it through warm smiles and courteous, friendly service. A recent experience from here (potentially TMI):

VTCIE wrote:
I’ll share a recent story of mine. The Monday before last, 24 February, I had an IndiGo flight from SIN. I greeted the FAs on boarding and talked to them courteously during the meal service. On deplaning, one of the FAs—I’ll call her T—was so delighted to see me (even though she had not served me during the flight) that she agreed to take a photo with me and another FA. She even waved to me on exiting immigration at MAA. Needless to say, it made my day, and I posted T’s picture on 6E’s Twitter handle (with her consent) praising their service; it was duly replied to by the airline which was happy to deliver great service.

Just today I had a return flight, also on 6E, and I wrote a note to the FAs commending them for their service. While they all happily agreed to sign on the note, I did not push for photographs as they had to operate the return leg back to India within the hour.

My conclusion is that if you luck out with an over-enthusiastic FA, like T, who called me a ‘darling’ repeatedly, you will get Sam Chui–like treatment. If not, which is generally going to be the case, it is best to let FAs go their own way; but even though you probably should not photograph them, do thank them for their work and service.

VTCIE wrote:
While T went above and beyond with me, most cabin crew would certainly not agree to getting photographed or getting personal. Since T herself asked for a picture, it was too good an offer to refuse. However, with any other flight attendants, I will go only as far as a gift, a smile and a thank-you note.

P.S. Some information about my travels not directly related to the above trip report.

MAA is the only city from which 6E serves SIN twice daily, and yet it could not have better timings for the eastbound flight. Meanwhile almost every flight from BOM to SIN, except the SQ A350, leaves at night. Since I’m a broke student, SQ is way out of my league. I did fly MI as a one-off, and I must say SilkAir has a great short-haul product that Vistara can aspire to; but it is too much money to fly regularly.

Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

Re: Scintillating Summer 2018 (14): Air India's NEW A320neo! (Kolkata - Mumbai AI676) (pics + videos, Aug 18)

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